wordpress

If you run a WordPress site you may have noticed a new notice appearing when you login to the admin dashboard. This announces the release of Gutenberg, a new type of editor which works a little like those large, clunky page builders we've been using for years.

It replaces many, if not all, shortcode plugins with its own blocks and actually works quite well. Because it's integrated in to WordPress it's likely to be quicker for pages to load and easier for even basic users to create complex pages with CSS style functionality.

It is being offered to a subset of WordPress users right now but will become standard in WordPress 5 - expected maybe Q1 2019.

It's not going to change the world for many people, but it might make adding and editing posts easier and quicker for less capable users. We have clients with several WordPress sites and staff training is always ongoing so Gutenberg might reduce that requirement and let them get on with their business. Our own tests on our own sites suggests that we can do away with widgets, plugins and shortcodes and start with a blank page laid out how we want and simply have to add the textual and media content.

If you want to try Gutenberg, just ask your account managerand we'll create a clone of your site that you can test it on without affecting your live site.

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are increasingly a fact of life for any business with a web presence. For any company, large or small, it’s no longer a matter of “if” you will get hit with a DDoS attack, but “when.” And without a third party provider who site between your site and the internet, WordPress and Joomla! sites are increasingly vulnerable to bots delivering DDoS attacks.

Why only WordPress and Joomla! sites you may ask - it's not just them but these platforms make up most of the CMS based sites on the internet and are often owned by people with limited technical knowledge on $1 per month hosting plans. Add to this the fact they haven't been updated in ages and it makes easy pickings for hackers and other malicious actors.